Speech is the vocalized form of human communication. It is based upon the syntactic combination of lexicals and names that are drawn from very large (usually to about 10,000 different words) vocabularies. Each spoken word is created out of the phonetic combination of a limited set of vowel and consonant speech sound units. These vocabularies, the syntax which structures them, and their set of speech sound units differ, creating the existence of many thousands of different types of mutually unintelligible human languages. Most human speakers (polyglots) are able to communicate in two or more of them. The vocal abilities that enable humans to produce speech also provide humans with the ability to sing.

Noun

Speech Wikipedia speech (countable and uncountable; plural speeches)

1. (uncountable) The faculty of speech; the ability to speak or to use vocalizations to communicate.

   It was hard to hear the sounds of his speech over the noise.

   He had a bad speech' impediment.

   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter XV and XVIII:

     I was at liberty to attend to Wilbert, who I could see desired speech with me. [...] As far as Bobbie and I were concerned, silence reigned, this novel twist in the scenario having wiped speech from our lips, as the expression is, but Phyllis continued vocal. [...] For perhaps a quarter of a minute after he had passed from the scene the aged relative stood struggling for utterance. At the end of this period she found speech. “Of all the damn silly fatheaded things!”

2. (countable) A session of speaking; a long oral message given publicly usually by one person.

   The candidate made some ambitious promises in his campaign speech.

   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter I and XII:

     He's going to present the prizes at Market Snodsbury Grammar School. We've been caught short as usual, and somebody has got to make a speech on ideals and the great world outside to those blasted boys, so he fits in nicely. I believe he's a very fine speaker. His only trouble is that he's stymied unless he has his speech with him and can read it. Calls it referring to his notes. [...] “So that's why he's been going about looking like a dead fish. I suppose Roberta broke the engagement?” “In a speech lasting five minutes without a pause for breath.”

Derived terms Terms derived from speech

• after-dinner speech
• byspeech
• figure of speech

• pressure of speech
• pressured speech

• speech recognition
• speechwriter

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